Ichigo's pov now.

The previous night.

Ichigo would admit to feeling slightly more energetic than usual upon returning to her home. It was only natural for her after beating the hell out of someone/multiple people since it was something like an adrenalin high. However, tended to consist more of excessive energy than actual adrenalin.

And since that was the case, she simply did what she always did when stuff like this happened to her.

She spent a few minutes changing out of her school clothes and finding something that she could really move around in and then told Opera that she was going to go outside to train for a bit.

But Opera objected to her plan because it was already dark out and she hadn't yet eaten any of the dinner that he had prepared for her.

Under normal circumstances she would have caved in to his wishes, mainly because she didn't want to hurt his feelings any. But today, she was far too determined. So, after a moment or so of thought she asked him if there was somewhere in the mansion that she could train.

Maybe a nice, big room that wasn't used for anything?

Opera seemed to know and understand that something was off about her right then, so after a few heartbeats he told her about a room across the mansion. It was a bit of a workout room for both he and master Sillivan. For when the two of them didn't feel like leaving the mansion during certain times and instead were feeling far too energetic to simply sit still.

It sounded perfect to her so Ichigo asked if he could bring her dinner with them so that she could eat once she felt hungry.

Opera was happy to do so and was even happy to lead her to the room. And upon reaching it, Ichigo took note of various things about the room. Like the fact that the walls were thicker here than in the rest of the mansion by about ten- no twenty feet.

Not inches, but actual, honest to god feet.

Not only that but the walls had something intangible, and unseen covering it. She could feel the energy from it like a hum vibrating underneath her skin.

"Are the walls bespelled?" She asked as she turned her head to see what Opera was doing since he had walked away a few seconds ago. She saw/heard him dragging a small chair over to the corner of the room with one hand. The other was still being used to carry her dinner without spilling the food onto the floor.

She wasn't sure how he managed to drag such a heavy chair around while precariously perching her dinner on the tips of his other hand's fingertips- but she was fairly certain that she felt just a tad bit jealous of his natural poise and grace.

"Yes, they are," He replied once he had the chair where he wanted it and finally set the plate of food down on the floor next to it. "I'm surprised that you noticed such a thing, Miss."

He returned to her side and then explained while pointing to various places around the room, "The walls, floor, and ceiling of this room are all reinforced to allow high ranking demons like Master Sullivan to really cut loose. The spells that you found are a combination of several hundred spells interwoven together. They are meant to keep any damage done in this room from escaping to the rest of the house. Or worse, outside."

Ichigo didn't need to be told that the many spells were used for either the safety of those in the room or those outside of it, depending on the situation.

Which made sense once she really thought about it. Especially given her grandpa's high rank and title as a demon. Not to mention the fact that Opera- while he seemed content to play the part of a mere servant- was probably close to or maybe even on par with her grandpa power-wise. He merely downplayed his abilities to others in a way that would make him seem much weaker to others than he actually was.

Only fools would fall for the demon's deception. But Ichigo had been on to him since she'd first met him. There was an aura to him that in, her experience, only clung to beings of power.

She felt one of his hands lightly touch her shoulder and twitched a little bit in place as she turned her head to look at him as he asked, "Will this room be sufficient for your training?"

"Yes, I think it will." She said absently, Opera nodded his head and then turned and went back to the corner where the chair was and sat down before calling out to her.

"I will be here to observe your training and make sure that things don't go too far, Miss!"

She waved at him in acknowledgement of his words and then moved to the center of the room and took a moment to pull her hair into a messy bun so that it wouldn't get in her way. After that, she dropped into a fighting stance and began to go through various martial arts katas while Opera settled into his chair and watched her with wide, unblinking feline eyes.

She lost track of time after that especially once Opera up and decided to join her. Apparently after watching her for a while, he started to feel pretty overly energetic himself.

So, he walked over to her and stopped her in mid roundhouse and challenged her to a sparring match. Which, she didn't mind any. The sad fact of the matter was that very few people- including her friends- could even keep up with her anymore as far as fighting went.

Which was why the chance to spar with someone new with unknown strength and abilities was such a fun idea to her. But she had other reasons for even agreeing to the spar with Opera.

One was finding out just how strong he was so that she would have a better idea of just how powerful he really was. Another had to do with her curiosity about what sort of fighting style he used. And the third had to do with the idea of maybe adding Opera's fighting style to her growing list of skills.

It was a hobby of sorts with her. Collecting all kinds of various combat skills and mastering them so that she could use them at her leisure.

It was part of the reason that she was so damned difficult to beat in a fight. She had a tendency to master things that she shouldn't. Often times by simply watching or doing.

Some people hated her because of it.

But a gift was a gift even if it was seen mostly as a curse.

Sparring with Opera was definitely a learning experience for her. The cat demon was a monster in ways that she hadn't been entirely aware of. Brutal and vicious, relentless and ruthless. Every blow that they exchanged with one another was one that made her body ache in ways that she had long forgotten about.

Not only that, but the guy was having just as much fun as she was. Raising the question of whether or not he was just a little bit unhinged. She knew that she was. And blamed a lot of that on the fact that Zangetsu had her hearing more voices in her head than she probably should at times.

But shit happened so she tried to just let him sort everything out unless her attention was absolutely and immediately necessary.

Opera suddenly hit the floor and tried to sweep her legs out from under her. Which had her quickly jumping into the air to avoid falling. But he still managed to catch her with an open palmed strike to the underside of her chin. Which hurt like a mother but didn't faze her for more than a second or so before she was nailing him with a punch in the stomach.

He grunted and let the force from the blow knock him back a few feet but then straightened up again and rushed her, ready to strike again.

She had no idea how long they continued on like this.

He would strike out, and she would deflect or sidestep. Then she would strike at him, and he would do the same. On and on they would grapple, flip each other, trade blows and kicks until they were both disheveled, sweaty, and panting for breath.

"You are doing much better at sparring with me that I initially thought that you would, Miss." He finally said, his red eyes never leaving her face as his tail flicked slowly behind him.

"You're doing very well yourself, Opera. There are very few that can keep up with me nowadays."

"That is quite the compliment. Thank you, Miss." He smiled before slowly exhaling in a hiss and then saying, "I believe that I am done now."

She blinked at him; part of her mind unable to comprehend that her playmate no longer wanted to play with her for the time being. Which elicited a whine of disappointment from her.

"Aww, but I'm not done yet!"

Opera merely chuckled at her in amusement as he said, "We've been sparring for more than three hours. Enough is enough. Besides, you still haven't eaten anything or showered. And tomorrow is another school day. So, you need to rest while you can too."

He was right of course. She knew that. But...

"I was having fun."

"So was I. But there will be other times when we can spar again." He said gently as she pouted for a moment but then sighed and decided to drop the subject and be a good girl.

"Oh alright."

"Good girl, now come over here and sit down and eat your dinner. It's gotten cold, but it should still be good." Everything that she did from that point on was basically on autopilot.

She ate her food.

Then Opera took her back through the mansion to her bedroom and drew a bath for her and then left her to clean up while he took her dirty dish to the kitchen and put it in the sink and then ran to get some salve and other things to treat some of the bruises and other things that he'd caused.

And then after that was out of the way, she flopped over on her bed and was out like a light before he could bid her goodnight.